A month that witnessednine jumbo deaths
The first incident was of Madukkarai Maharaj, the lone tusker who was frequenting farm lands in search of food and water. There is a lot a debate happening over how the entire operation of 'Madukkarai Maharaj' was handled. Apparently what we can understand is, we are still not prepared to handle operations as this with the kind of sensitivity and expertise it requires. Amidst a highly stressful environment packed with hundreds of curious onlookers and cheering crowd, the lone tusker was tranquilized, tied and drawn into a truck with the help of Kumkis, transported to Topslip and jailed inside a kraal. He died inside the Kraal.
A picture of Kattayan (Madukkarai Maharaj) pushed into a truck by a Kumki. It died two days later after losing it's territory.
According to Forest officials he succumbed to multiple fractures on the forehead and a muscle tear in the head. People who witnessed his last moments say he tried to break free from captivity, violently banging his head against the logs of the Kraal. While the impact of drugs and dosage of sedatives used and their possible role in destabilizing him requires further scrutiny, the very decision of conducting this operation should have been taken only after ascertaining the outcome. Now this is a failed attempt and the attempt has killed the tusker.
The second incident was that of the death of a 35 year old female elephant hit by an express train near Madukkarai. She was a 35 year old lactating mother, part of a 6 member herd, which includes her calf. The herd had crossed the reserve forests and entered farm lands in Ettimadai on Monday early in the morning just past midnight. When farmers chased them using crackers the frightened elephants attempted to cross the railway track along the foothills of Dhramalingeshwarar hills. The female elephant died after being fatally hit by Kochuveli express around 12.55 a.m. The calf of the dead elephant and the other four members have been found waiting near the carcass of the female elephant for nearly 5 hours till forest officials chased them away using crackers.
This is the picture of the elephant which died two days back in walayar. Again due to train collision.
The third incident happened by the end of the week. On Sunday reports of a 40 year old male tusker, which veterinarians from Kerala attempted to heal, died couple of days later in TN forest range came. As per doctors the tusker died due to septicemia owing to a small, but nearly one and a half foot deep wound reaching up to its shoulder bone. The size and nature of the wound indicates a bullet injury. But veterinary doctors have not recovered any bullet during the postmortem. If the tusker died of a bullet injury and it's a possible case of poaching, retrieving the bullet would have given some leads into the case.
All three incidents have occurred in and around Coimbatore, close to the western ghats range and just within a week. The region has been witnessing a steep raise in man-animal encounters over the recent past. Ideally any loss of life, human or animal is painful. The voice of environmentalists and the rationale behind some of their concerns is often mistaken as lack of concern to human lives. But if we look deep within these incidents we will find Human impact as the Newtonian force, the very cause, behind such incidents and accidents.
Madukkarai Maharaj was seen as a menace. But today his death is not looked at as a course of justice by the same people who voiced he should be killed. Because the entire incident has made them see some glaring human errors. The lives of these gullible elephants and casualties happened to human lives and property in the region could have been averted had we addressed the real cause of the problem.
Follow us on this multipart series 'The Elephant Corridor'. We will take you through the cause behind man-animal encounters in our region and how we can secure a lasting solution to this conflict.